The poet's choice of words reminds the reader that we are dealing with a hot country where thirst is common, after all, 'there never is enough water. There never is enough water.

Poetry – GCSE English Literature (2015 onwards)

The imagery used in the poem emphasises the poverty of the people and how important and how sacred drinking water is to these people. It could be that the tongues are 'roaring' with thirst, or perhaps that people are merely shouting and their combined voices constitutes b2gether dating after divorce 'roar' of a crowd.

The poet describes the gushing water as a 'sudden rush of fortune' like someone winning the jackpot on a slot machine and the money rushing out of the machine. The word 'pod' refers to a seed pod that opens in the hot weather to release its seeds.

The poem starts with a short, two line stanza that serves the purpose of framing the poem and establishing the context or back story of the poem. Moreover, what kind of person owns a tin mug? Most interestingly of all, the last line of the second stanza personifies the echoing splash of the water as 'the voice of a kindly god', which not only makes the water seem even more precious and divine but also part of a god and therefore something miraculous and deeply special.

The word 'congregation' has been used as it has two important meanings within the context of this poem.

Writing and analysing poetry

And indeed, as the poem continues people are starting to appear from their huts with all manner of pots and pans to carry the water, so perhaps the 'roar of tongues' is actually a shout of alarm and panic to tell people that they need to try and save as much of the water as possible.

The third and longest stanza of the poem tells us a story of a burst water pipe and how suddenly this precious resource was transformed from a tiny, precious drip into a powerful torrent of water.

People from 'all the streets around' rush to save the water. A rich man, or a poor man? This could mean that their water is somehow restricted, perhaps they have to pay for it and as such a burst pipe represents a chance to save some free water.

However, all is not doom and gloom since the small children are playing in the water, the highlights in their hair 'polished to perfection' after a life spent outside in the hot 'liquid' sun.

It is described that they use cheap containers to save the water and their 'frantic' hands also suggest that there is an atmosphere of panic. It is highly unlikely that people in a British city would all rush out to the road with their pots and pans and buckets to save water if a water pipe burst on the street!

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In this poem the word 'roar' refers to a group of people since we only have one tongue each and therefore the plural 'tongues' suggests a group. Here the 'skin' could be a literal reference to a person's skin that has become chapped and chafed by constant exposure to the hot sun, or could a more figurative reference to the dry dusty ground that also cracks and splits during heat-waves and droughts.

Like the first stanza, the second stanza reinforces the idea that within the context of this poem water is a very precious and rare thing, not to be wasted at any cost.

When taken together these descriptive words paint a rather bleak, even violent image. Again, the poet is using ambiguous religious language, the effect being to make the process of saving the spilling water a kind of religious ritual, which in turn emphasises the precious nature of the water.

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The poet has already described the water as a gift from a 'kindly' god, so if the water is a gift from god it is only right that the act of collecting it should bear some resemblance to a religious ritual.

Also, when a person becomes dehydrated their lips and gums begin to shrink and their skin becomes dry and loose.

Such is the value and importance of water to these people that throughout the poem it is referred to as if it was a precious metal like gold or silver. The fact that the tiny droplet of water creates an 'echo' in the mug suggests that the mug is almost entirely empty, like a drop of cool water hitting a parched tongue.

As the water beings to flow and drain away it finds a 'roar of tongue. Caught in the right light water can look like silver, or a highly polished mirror, only in this instance the poet uses the word 'silver' to emphasise how precious a commodity it is.

BBC Bitesize - GCSE English Literature - Writing and analysing poetry

The skin cracks like a pod. Firstly it refers to a congregation or group of people, but it also refers to a group of people in a church or being given religious instruction. We could say that the reference to a tin mug implies that this person is also very poor. Maybe it is rationed in case it runs out.